Fool's Justice
by paynesgrey
Summary: Zuko visits Azula's prison cell, and informs her of his new executive decision. Azula and Zuko. One-shot. Companion piece to my MaiZuko ficlet, "Mark of a New Beginning". Post Series.


AN: Post-series. Companion to my Mai/Zuko ficlet, "Mark of a New Beginning".

Fool's Justice

For all she's done, the ground could be colder. The prison could be filthier, filled with rats and cockroaches and dormant disease.

But it's not. It's clean enough, not too dank with moisture from the underground cavern walls. Her particular cell is fortified, a wall within another wall, one made of stone and the other of steel. A guard dispenses her food and necessities through a tight window with earth bending. Few are allowed to see her or visit her. The ones that do visit, well, she'd rather they wouldn't come at all to constantly rub her incarceration into her face.

She's had a lot of time to think. She's never once imagined herself in this situation. Never once did she think she was low enough to belong here, yet her brother would tell her differently.

She knows, in another cell like this, somewhere on an island or in another secret underground location, her father dwells. The rumors are that he's powerless, that the Avatar defeated him by stripping him of his most precious gift.

Her lips tremble and quaver at the thought of the Avatar. For many nights, she's cursed him. She's cursed her brother. She's cursed the girls she thought were her loyal friends. She's cursed all her enemies and the fools that she once ordered around beneath her.

She's cursed everyone but herself. She'll _never_ blame herself.

She remembers time when everything was great – when her father had made everything better, and a life without her father ruling over the kingdom is a life she's never foreseen.

She plays with the blankets on her cot. It squeaks under her weight, and she grits her teeth in annoyance. She runs her fingers through her hair, matted and unwashed for several weeks. She has water to wash her hair, but she has no motivation. No one ever visits her. She's a princess without a court, so why should she bother?

Her new recent emotion is depression. She's never had much use for it before. She's always had confidence to spare, but living here – without the buffer of people to fear and worship her – she has the time to feel a little more human.

She detests this feeling.

Why does her brother keep her here? Why does he not torture her? Why does he give her a clean cell and food? Why does he not kill her and spare her from this abysmal existence any longer?

'Maybe he wants to bore me to death,' she says, falling onto her side listlessly in the cot. She blinks her eyes, and shuns sleep again. She hates sleep. She's had enough, and she doesn't want to sleep again until she's dead.

A noise wakes her, and Azula springs up from her cot. She hears the prison door open with earth bending, and then her brother strides in, his fists clenched at his side. He has a placid look on his face, not an anxious frown or an angry pout like she used to love.

"What do you want?" she snaps, and she turns over on her cot with her back to him and face to the wall. "Leave me alone. Haven't you bothered me enough?"

There's a measured silence that she feels press against her head. Then, she hears him speak, calm and unwavering – a Zuko she's never known. She wonders sometimes if this person is a stranger.

No. The scar is noticeable enough. She's definitely not imagining things.

"I came to tell you that you're going to get a trial."

She laughs a little. "Isn't it a little too late for that, Zuzu?" she says mockingly. She still does not turn to meet his eyes, however. "You already have me in prison."

"Maybe that's true." She hears him shuffle his feet in the sand of her cell. "But this is just a holding cell. There are much worse prisons to hold you if you're found guilty."

Suddenly, anger consumes her from his tone. She leaps off the bed to her feet to face him, and he meets her with that same presidential air. She feels her teeth grinding against her cheek.

"As far as you're concerned, as well as the rest of father's supporters in this kingdom, I'm guilty already!" she lashes at him. He calmly walks over to her, and she wants to wipe the noble expression off his face. That should be her right now, wearing royal robes and keeping the people under her thumb. It's _her_ right, not his.

"Not exactly. You can always be found mentally ill." There was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes that she detested. "The food is better in the sanitarium than in prison."

She can't control herself any longer, and she swings for him. Expertly, he catches her arm, holding her back. She makes a cry of frustration as he pushes her backward. His face doesn't even look fazed or annoyed by her action.

"And what about Father?" she snorts. "Will he get a trial too?" She rolls her eyes when he nods. "Well, if there's one thing you've shown as a leader, it's the ability to waste your subjects' time and money."

"I don't see it that way, Azula," he says confidently. He turns his back from her again, and she hates how he isn't worried that she'd strike him from behind. She still has her power after all. The Avatar was stupid and didn't take her power away like he did her father.

"I suppose you have some idiotic moral message to send our people by judging us in public. I always knew you were a bleeding heart for justice, brother," she scoffs, idly playing with her hair.

He turns around and rewards her with a rare smile that she's been seeing more of lately. She's never seen Zuko smile as much as he does now, and it unnerves her. The darkness of her control that once loomed over him is long gone, and nothing makes Azula sadder.

"I see you're learning," he says, and he crosses his arms and looks to her with hope in his eyes. It's sickening and she wants to barf on him, but she supposes he'll just add that to her many offenses at the trial. "You may think it's a waste of time, but I see it as a beginning of a new justice in the Fire Nation. The people will see publically, that corruption is no longer tolerated. That the Avatar and I are dedicated to peace." She makes a face of boredom and his smile disappears. "What better way to mark this new beginning by trying and judging the biggest tyrants of the Fire Nation."

Azula laughs lightly. "So that's what I am, now, a tyrant. Well that's just lovely. Are you going to etch that on my grave stone?"

Zuko looks at her with pity, and she knows she can't hate him any more than this. "You're not going to die, Azula. We're not going to sentence our prisoners to death." He sighs quickly for a moment. "You will, however, live a very long time in a place just like this."

She snarls at him. "I am well aware of that, brother. What if I want a death sentence? Huh? It should be my choice."

Zuko shakes his head. "You lost your freedom to make choices when you chose to side with my father against the Avatar." His mood is different now, and his eyes pierce her like a hot sword.

"He is our father! I had no choice but to follow him! He is the Firelord, and you and uncle are the traitors! And this Fire Lord role you're playing? Well, you're nothing more than a fake." She spits at his feet and levels with his dangerous glare. "Have your stupid trial. It means nothing to me anymore. I know that I was never wrong, Zuzu. You may have won this time, but violence will never die out. It will always exist, and someone else will come along and test you and take you down." Her muscles tug at her lips as she smiles, and as usual, he watches her without more than a calm expression.

"You are fool to think that, just as you were a fool to trust father. Now after all the destruction and death he caused, he is nothing. Just as you are." His words hit her like a chill, and she swings at him again, only to have him throw her on her bed. She looks up at him, and he's looking down at her with one last warning.

"Your trial will be Monday at sunrise. Please do yourself a favor and clean yourself up, Azula," he says, and his final word is full of condescension.

She scoffs at him. "I'll make them believe I'm crazy."

The earth benders are waiting for him outside her cell door. "I doubt you'll have to try hard." She growls at him, and she realizes in error she proves his point.

"They'll throw me in the sanitarium, and then I'll escape." She pauses and cocks her head at him playfully. "Then, I'll come for you and the Avatar."

He doesn't look worried, and she feels at unease, but he knows as well as she that she'll come through with her threats.

"No matter if you come for us, they'll always be opposition to defeat you and people like you, Azula." The door opens and she backs up as her calves brush against her cot. "I thought you would have learned that by now."

Then, she screams for him. She screams and hollers, and he disappears anyway. Her cell is locked shut and then silence fills her tiny room. She draws her knees to her chest and stares at the ground.

END


End file.
